Truffles-Alternate Recipe

From Chocolatiers Wiki

Mass Production Truffles with a Hacksaw

This is a basic truffle recipe and technique. It is quite suitable for mass producing truffles; in particular it can eliminate the rolling step and requires fridge but not freezer space.

It ends up producing a ganache that is softer than the Truffle Making recipe. However since rolling is not needed it works well for the truffles.

Using good dark chocolate, the basic recipe is

• 1lb chocolate
• 1lb heavy cream
• 1-3tbsp flavoring extract (may substitute more cream, and flavor the cream eg. by simmering stuff in the cream)

(Contrast: 2 cups of chocolate callets works out to roughly 3/4lb, and 1 cup of cream is about 0.5 lb)

• The chocolate should be in a large enough bowl to permit stirring with the cream.
• Heat cream to 160F.
• Pour cream over the chocolate (I've found that adding chocolate to the cream in the hot pan makes it more difficult to control the amount of heat added.)

• Let sit for about 1 minute and then start to stir. A wisk/whip is good at this point.
• Stir until the ganache homogenizes. You will see the ganache transition from:
  • Cream with bits of melted chocolate
  • Lightly chocolated cream with larger bits of melted chocolate
  • Smooth dark ganache
• Let cool slightly and then add in the flavoring

• Pour the liquid ganache into some sort of mold. For the above quantities I like to use an 8" square silicone cake pan.
• Cover lightly, eg. with a paper towel and then a lid. Moisture will come off the ganache, and you don't want it condensing and dripping back onto the ganache.
• Let the ganache sit at room temperature for several hours or over night. This part is critical; if you refrigerate the ganache immediately it will not set up properly. Some reaction occurs at room temperature and the ganache gets reasonably firm at room temperature.

• After the ganache sets up, it can to brush a very thin layer of tempered chocolate on the ganache to act as a release agent in later steps.

• After the ganache has set up, refrigerate it. It will now get hard enough to work.

You now have ganache ready for forming and making truffles. At this point you could do the standard rolling and dipping technique. Even though this recipe has a relatively high cream content, the ganache is easy to work with because of the room temperature set-up step. However for 'mass production' you want to ditch the rolling step.

The next step involves hand tools. You want to cut the ganache into small squares for dipping. The problem is that the ganache will stick to the sides of a knife. The proper cutting tool is a taut stainless steel wire. I stretch some 0.020 spring temper stainless steel wire on a hacksaw frame to use as my cutting wire.

• De-mold the ganache and place on some wax paper or plastic wrap over something soft like sponge rubber.
• Using the hacksaw, simply slice into the 'loaf' of ganache to make small squares or cubes. The thin chocolate layer helps keep the ganache from sticking to the wax paper.
• As you cut, use the wire to 'push' the broken off section to the side, creating separation between the ganache sections.

You now have a large bunch of small ganache cubes ready for dipping. When you dip, try to arrange things so that the already set chocolate layer ends up on the bottom of the dipped truffles, since the ganache will tend to sink down as the chocolate sets up. Another useful trick to keep the ganache from sinking through your dipping chocolate is to brush tempered chocolate onto whatever sheet you are cooling the truffles on.

Variations

There are many possible substitutes for the cream. Coconut milk has the right fat content and makes rather nice vegan truffles. Almond paste whipped into hot water to the right fat content is also a possible vegan cream substitute.

-Jonathan Edelson (winnie_pub@borealis.com)